A review of how compensation is calculated for people who have suffered terrible life-changing injuries caused by negligence is now underway.

The money is needed to adapt homes, and for specialist treatments, equipment, and care. Some people need round-the-clock help with the very basic tasks most of us take for granted, like going to the toilet, and feeding and washing ourselves.

It is critical that this review focusses on the needs of injured people and nothing else. Car insurers have suggested that compensation for serious injuries needs a ‘rethink’ because the cost will be passed on in the premiums they charge customers. But it is well-documented that the ballooning cost of repairs, theft claims, and courtesy cars are really behind increasing car insurance prices, not injury claims.

Severely injured people must not be made scapegoats for the insurance industry’s wider problems.

Compensation is never a ‘windfall’ or ‘bonus’. It is carefully calculated to meet the needs of victims, nothing more, nothing less.

The broader impact for us all is that if compensation is inadequate, taxpayers must pick up the bill for the care and support of victims of negligence.

Kim Harrison

President

APIL (the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers)